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LEVI DECKER, OF BERGEN, NEW JERSEY.

CUSHION FOR BILLIARD-TABLES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 22,020, dated November 9, 1858.

To all whom it 'may concern: l

Be it known that I, LEVI DECKER, of Bergen, in the county of HudsonandState of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement inCushions of Billiard- Tables; and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to theaccompanying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

It has been found by experience to be adiiiicult matter to constructfrom out of the materials in use for that purpose, especially when usedin the ordinary manner an elastic cushion for billiard tables, whichshall be of uniform elasticity throughout its whole length. It has beenalso found that these cushions when so constructed are liable to more orless lose their elasticity and to do so in a variable degree, indifferent parts of t-he same cushion. Furthermore all cushions of thiskind are of such flexibility or soft-ness as to offer on their surfacebut little or no resisting force, consequently the ball has to penetrateto a considerable distance beyond the line of the cushions surfacebefore an amount of resistance is called into action sufficient toovercome the momentum of and return the ball, thus causing a deepindentation which depth of indentation materially and injuriouslyaffects the direction of the return of the ball.

The nature of my invention is to employ in the construction of billiardtable cushions india-rubber in a stretched and unstretched statecombined together, for the purpose of improving the cushion in therespects aforesaid.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to make and use myinvention I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The accompanying drawing is a transverse section of my improved cushionattached to the frame of a billiard table, in which A, is the frame, ofthe t-able B, B, B is the wood work or back and bottom of the cushion C,is the unstretched india rubber. The red colored streak is the stretchedrubber. The white colored streak is an inner covering of textilematerial, say of canton flannel and the green colored streak is theusual outer covering of the cushion. All of these parts as so exhibitedin the said drawing, with the exception of the stretched rubber, Iconstruct in the usual manner and require no description, I then take astrip of elastic rubber or rubber compound of suflicient length andwidth and stretch it along so as to cover and strain over that face ofthe unstretched rubber of the cushion against which it is intended theball shall strike, fastening it at each end so as to hold it in astretched or strained condition, also if desirable, fastening it to theunstretched rubber.

The thickness of the strip may be varied at pleasure, from a very thinstrip up to one of considerable thickness say as thick and if foundnecessary even thicker than the unstretched rubber. Neither do I limitmyself to one strip at a time but claim the exclusive right to use asmany as the exigencies of the case require. The stretched rubber may ormay not be first united to textile cloth. It may consist of or havecombined with it any number of thicknesses of the textile in which casethe textile cloth will more or less aid in giving it strength.

The operation of my invention is as follows: The stretched rubber actsas a compress to more or less consolidate the unstretched rubber formingpart of the cushion and thus adds to its active elasticity while at thesame time it (the stretched rubber) resists throughout its whole lengthan attempt to deflect the surface of the cushion either inward oroutward and while so resisting an inward deflection it is aided more orless throughout its whole length by the unstretched rubber behind it.rlhe stetched rubber thus applied forms a facing of the cushion of softand very elastic material and possessing the function of a long actingspring which object has heretofore been sought by the use of materialfor a facing harder than that of the india rubber pad such as cork,leather, hard rubber, steel and whale-bone and which in practice hasbeen attended with more or less difliculties of breaking, bending orproducing too much no-ise by the blow of the ball.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Let-ters Patent isrlhe combination in a billiard table cushion of stretched andunstretched rubber for the purpose hereinbefore described.

LEVI DECKER.

Witnesses:

MELVILLE V. Brees, MILES B. ANDRUs.

